BATTER UP!

T he second-most beautiful words in the English language: Pitchers and catchers report.

T he second-most beautiful words in the English language: Pitchers and catchers report.

The most beautiful words in the English language: Play ball!

It reminds me of something Rogers Hornsby, a Hall of Fame second baseman who played from 1915 to 1937, once said: "People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring."

Well, spring is nigh because major leaguers are playing spring-training games and book publishers are sending out new baseball titles faster than a Nolan Ryan heater streaking toward home plate.

Here are a few titles to warm you up for the season:

• Yogi: The Life and Times of an American Original, Carlo DeVito (Triumph, 412 pages, $25.95)

Mickey Mantle once speculated that New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra said only about a third of the things attributed to him.

"(St. Louis Cardinals catcher and Berra boyhood pal Joe) Garagiola made up a third," Mantle said, "and the (sports) writers made up the rest."

DeVito proposes in Yogi to cut through the tall tales and the myth to uncover the man "genuinely one of the greatest players ever to pick up a bat and ball. . . . And no matter how humorous his remarks are, his accomplishments were hard-earned and fairly won."

• The 33-Year-Old Rookie, Chris Coste, with a foreword by John Kruk (Ballantine, 199 pages, $25)

I used to cover AAA baseball games in Columbus for newspapers in Rochester, N.Y., and Des Moines, Iowa. Hanging around the locker room, it was obvious that a player such as Roberto Kelly would end up in pinstripes. His story was preordained and not particularly interesting.

Much more fascinating were the grinders, guys who'd been in the minors for six, eight or 10 years with the major leagues nowhere in sight.

Chris Coste beat the bushes for 11 years before being called up by the Philadelphia Phillies in 2006 at age 33.

John Kruk (another guy who spent a good deal of time in the minors) appreciated Coste's style (or lack thereof): "He reminded me of myself somewhat with his tremendously unorthodox hitting style."

No baseball season would be complete without at least one terrific work of fiction, and Publishers Weekly thinks this is it: "an exciting, fast-paced story" that is "a fine commentary on baseball lore, race relations and American sentiment during World War II."

Schilling makes the legendary promoter Bill Veeck the star of his novel, a man so intent on winning a pennant that he recruits stars from the Negro League to play on his club in 1944.

It isn't the way things were but the way they should have been.

• In paperback: The Entitled: A Tale of Modern Baseball, Frank DeFord (Sourcebooks); Big Papi: My Story of Big Dreams and Big Hits (Griffin); Baseball: A History of America's Favorite Game, George Vecsey (Modern Library); The Echoing Green: The Untold Story of Bobby Thomson, Ralph Branca and the Shot Heard Round the World, Joshua Prager (Vintage); Perfect, Once Removed: When Baseball Was All the World to Me, Phillip Hoose (Walker).

beichenberger@ dispatch.com

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